Photo: Joel Kowsky / NASA / Getty Images
By: EFE
Tuesday, October 1
Roscosmos and NASA agree to resume joint flights after a decade
The Russian space agency, Roscosmos, and the NASA have reached an agreement for the resumption of joint flights in Russian and US ships , which were discontinued at 2011 with the withdrawal of the American ferries.
Four Russian candidates have already been selected, two incumbents and two alternates, to fly in the commercial expeditions USCV-5 and USCV-6, as Maxim Jarlámov, director of the Cosmonaut Preparation Center, explained today to the Interfax agency.
Shortly, the candidates to fly in the Crew Dragon will undergo the corresponding exam s and state commission tests for final confirmation.
“It is a principle of agreement. As it is an exchange scheme, the negotiations take place at the government level, ”said Sergei Krikalyov, director of the Roscosmos space program.
According to the NASA, those flights, which could also include joint training, will occur in the second half of 2022.
Last March Krikaliov assured that Roscosmos advocates that NASA astronauts can also fly in Russian Soyuz, as they have done for a decade.
Soyuz spacecraft were the only link between our planet and the International Space Station since the retirement of the space shuttles in 2011 and the launch of the Crew Dragon of the private company SpaceX in May 2020.
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